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Internet Explorer
Both IE7 and IE8 support third-party add-ons, a feature Microsoft seems interested in pushing more aggressively in IE8. In the latest beta build, Microsoft includes an ieaddons.com bookmark on the Favorites Bar, while also adding two new IE8-only features called Accelerators and Web Slices.
Accelerators make routine tasks a cinch without having to navigate away from the page you're viewing. Just highlight text from any website and a blue Accelerator icon appears above the selection allowing you to look up driving directions, find items with an Ebay search, translate text, define words, and a handful of other tasks depending on which Accelerators you have installed.
Web Slices offer a similar convenience as Accelerators, but in a different way. If a Web Slice is available on a page -- an Ebay auction, for example -- a green icon appears. Click it to add the Web Slice to the Favorites Bar, and whenever you want to quickly check the status of the auction (or sports scores, stock quotes, Digg updates, and so forth), click the newly added Web Slice to bring up a preview of the site.
Firefox
Simply put, no other browser boasts the same level of versatility and customization options as Firefox. To date there are over 6,000 add-ons available and more than 600 themes to choose from.
Safari
Here again is another browser without an official extension architecture. And unlike Opera, which boasts several extensible features out of the box, mouse gestures and other features power users have come to rely on aren't built into the browser.
The situation is even worse for Windows users. Sites like PimpMySafari.com offer several user-created plug-ins for Safari on Mac OS X, but no such luck for the rest of us who own and operate a real PC. Not unless you can get excited about Real Player, Adobe Reader, and a small handful of other ho-hum plug-ins.
Comments are closed on this article
carickw
March 05, 2009 at 11:37am
Opera has the best feature around: Identify As...
There is a dropdown menu that allows you to Identify as Opera, Firefox, or IE, and unlike firefox, you don't need IE installed to use it, aka Linux. I have not had a problem with any sites that say they don't recognize my browser by simply changing that to Firefox (or IE for IE Specific sites). Check out autotrader.com and see for yourself and get that slow browser off your system :)
HeartBurnKid
March 05, 2009 at 1:55pm
User Agent Switcher: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/59
samduhman
March 05, 2009 at 7:03am
I also love Opera BUT not all the time until I try to post a comment at shacknews. It fails everytime. I click post and it just sits there spinning its wheels.
willsmith
March 06, 2009 at 8:56am
Yeah, but I think we have to blame that on haiku & pup., not Opera.
gamesfrager
March 05, 2009 at 12:42am
I hope modern browsers will FORCE IE to be more..well..modern :) especially for webdevelopers and designer. If we can escape hacking CSS for the sake of internet explorer then this will be almost like going to heaven.
kingspatula
March 05, 2009 at 12:12am
One of the biggest things that keeps me loyal to Firefox is that when you type just a name of a site like maximumpc in the address bar without a .com or http or anything, just maximumpc and hit enter, it goes straight to maximumpc. It doesn't go to the results of a search a la windows live search or google, it just goes straight to the page itself. I find this to be very useful and a noteable feature not available in ohter browsers as far as I know. Firefox ftw!
